"I just want him to survive, and be well again like he was," said Savina Fanelli. "He has a keen mind, and that's how I want him back."

Anthony Fanelli, 79, remains in critical but stable condition.

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- An Army veteran
who once served as the grand marshal of the
borough's Memorial Day Parade
is now fighting for his life after being struck by a car on his way home from a Veterans Day event in Rosebank late Monday night.

Anthony Fanelli, 79, suffered a fractured skull after an 83-year-old female motorist hit him with a 2012 Acura as he crossed Hylan Boulevard by Bay Street Monday night, according to authorities. He remains in critical but stable condition at Staten Island University Hospital, Ocean Breeze.

"He doesn't talk. He doesn't know. They are sedating him. He's on a ventilator," said his wife, Savina Fanelli, on Tuesday afternoon. "I just want him to survive, and be well again like he was. He has a keen mind, and that's how I want him back."

The female motorist, whose name has not been released by authorities, was issued a summons, and an investigation into the crash remains ongoing, according to an NYPD spokeswoman.

It turned out that Fanelli had been involved in a fender-bender at that same intersection about an hour earlier, according to police. He was driving a 2012 BMW, made a left turn on to Hylan and struck a 1998 Honda sedan, but no one was injured, police said.

Police arrived to take his and the other driver's information, instructed both drivers to clear the road, took a report, and left, according to an NYPD source familiar with the investigation.

Shaken up by that crash, Fanelli, who had a friend with him, decided to go to a nearby Dunkin' Donuts, about a block away on Bay Street, to get coffee, the source said. The friend, Marine Corps and Air Force veteran John Sobchik of Willowbrook went first, and bought the two cups of coffee.

"He was gonna get into his car. I waited and I waited. Where could he be going, two or three blocks?" recounted Sobchik.

Sobchik called his cell phone and got no response, and then, "I saw flashing lights at the Hylan and Bay Street, and I figured something had to have happened to him."

Fanelli, who uses a cane, tried to cross Hylan, the Acura, which was heading northbound, hit him, the NYPD source said.

In an odd coincidence, the driver of the Acura lives in the same apartment complex as the Honda driver in the earlier fender-bender.

Mrs.
Fanelli said that he and his friend were on their way back from a
veterans gathering at Charlie Brown's Steakhouse in Mariners Harbor.

Fanelli, who lives on New Lane in Rosebank, is active in veterans activities, including the United Staten Island Veterans Organization (USIVO) and the American Legion's Huttner-Pasqualini Post and in 2012 served as the grand marshal of the 2012 Staten Island Memorial Day Parade.

"He's a great guy, a humanitarian. He'd help out everybody," said James A. Haynes III, the executive commander of USIVO. "He's dedicated to his family. He's dedicated to people."

He was stationed in Hawaii during peacetime in the 1950s, his wife said, serving two years of active duty and four years of reserve service.

Mrs. Fanelli said that her family was in the furniture business, and that they had run a factory together in Long Island for several decades called Tuscan Imports.

They moved to Staten Island about 15 years ago, she said, and he's been an active member of veterans groups here, meeting with politicians and, most recently, working on the details of a memorial statue to Army Staff Sgt. Michael H. Ollis -- who died in Afghanistan Aug. 28 protecting a Polish soldier from a suicide bomber during an attack on their base.

Mrs. Fanelli said that she's drawing support from their two adult sons and their families after Monday's crash.